Just Like His Sunflowers
by MissEMT
Summary: oneshot, AU. In which toddler Harry learns of the long and arduous process of a baby growing, not unlike sunflowers.


It wasn't at all what Harry had imagined.

His mummy had said it would be just like him. But, he reckoned, he was not that crinkly. In fact, he knew – there was a mirror in the bath-time room that he looked into sometimes that showed him to him. So he knew he was not that crinkly.

And, he was bigger. He knew that because when he was next to it, he was bigger. His whole body was bigger. He was pretty sure.

When Harry told his mummy this, she laughed. "But she will grow."

Grow? Harry knew that word. The sunflowers in the garden that had been seeds in the ground but were not seeds anymore had grown. Harry told his mummy this too.

"Yes, sweetheart, that's it. She'll grow bigger, just like your sunflowers."

But Harry still didn't really get it. This _baby_ (He had heard his daddy call it that so he knew that that was what it was called. Just like he was called Harry.) looked nothing like the seeds that the sunflowers used to look like. The seeds had come in a little packet that Harry's daddy had to rip open with his teeth – it was really funny 'cause then his daddy had started growling like the lions in his bed-time book always did and he did funny claw-hands which made Harry laugh a lot'cause Harry really liked lions and his daddy was a funny lion – and they had been so teeny tiny that Harry could fit loads into just one hand. He held more in his hand than his daddy did. It's true. But Harry couldn't fit this baby in his hand. He tried. He could hold its hand, but not hold the whole baby in his hand. Not even two hands. So the baby was not like his sunflower seeds. Not at all. But his mummy said that she was so Harry decided that the baby must be like the seeds after all. (Harry wondered whether the baby would turn yellow as well. That's what the sunflowers did.)

So Harry thought he'd watch the baby grow. Just like he did with the seeds. Harry remembered that they took a long long time until they looked like sunflowers, and he also remembered that at first they were green. Not yellow; green. They were very small. Peeking out of the ground. That's what his daddy had said: peeking. Harry liked that word, it sounded like that game Sirius played with him that one time where Sirius went and hid under the table in the kitchen and Harry had to close his eyes and count for ages and then go find Sirius but it had been easy because Sirius was only under the table. When it was Harry's turn to hide, Sirius didn't find him for a long long time and his mummy got worried and Harry was only in the cupboard under the sink in the kitchen. Harry liked hiding best. Harry was very good at that game, his daddy said so.

Anyway. Harry watched the baby when it came home. (It wasn't at home at first, it was at the hospital with his mummy – that's where his mummy found it, Harry reckoned.) Harry watched the baby when mummy put it in the crib. Harry even watched it in there through the bars for a long time. All it did was lie there. Harry watched it when his mummy carried it around. Harry watched it when his mummy and daddy put it in water. (His daddy called it a bath but Harry thought it didn't look like where he had his bath-time. Harry even checked that his bath-time bath was still there and it was. The baby's bath was different). Harry was lucky because he was allowed to wash the baby too. He put soap on the baby's head, just like his mummy or daddy did for him when it was his bath-time. Harry felt like a proper grown-up when he got to put the soap on the baby's head. But the baby didn't like its bath-time. Harry loved bath-time. He had a boat to play with that he could only play with when he was in the bath because it was a toy for the bath only. But the baby didn't have a boat. Harry thought the baby would like the bath more if it had a boat. So he told his daddy this, and his daddy laughed and ruffled his hair. He knew he'd said the right thing.

Harry hoped his daddy would buy the boat soon because the baby was very loud in the bath. Actually, the baby was loud not in the bath too. It was loud when his mummy held it and when his daddy held it and when Sirius held it and when Remus held it and when Peter held it. It was loud in its crib sometimes too. (Harry didn't like how loud the baby was. Sometimes it was so loud that he had to put his hands over his ears.)

Harry watched the baby for a very very long time. But he never ever saw the baby grow. Not once. It wasn't green or peeking. Definitely not yellow. (He knew this because he liked yellow because his sunflowers were yellow. Yellow was his second favourite colour. Red was his first favourite.)

Sometimes Harry couldn't watch the baby though. Sometimes he went to Remus' house. He liked Remus' house because there was a big garden and Harry was allowed to dig in the garden with the spade Remus had got him. He went to Remus' house when mummy and daddy wanted _quiet time_ or something. Harry knew what quiet was, it was where you put your lips together and put a finger on your mouth. Sometimes Sirius and Peter would be at Remus' house and Peter liked digging too. Sirius liked digging the most though (but not as much as Harry) 'specially when he was a dog. When he was a dog, Sirius dug big big holes that sprayed mud everywhere, even onto Harry, and Harry laughed a lot but Remus never laughed when Sirius like a dog dug holes.

Anyway, when Harry went to Remus' house, he couldn't watch the baby because the baby was still at his house. Harry got angry sometimes when he had to go away and the baby got to stay with mummy and daddy at his house. But he liked digging so it was ok really. After Remus' house, Harry would always rush to see the baby to see if it had grown while he was gone, but it never had. It was always crinkly and small. Harry didn't see any clues to greenness or peeking ever. Not once. But Harry kept watching. Watching, watching, watching. His mummy said it would grow so it had to grow soon. Harry just hoped that it would grow before his bedtime everyday. He would be very cross if it grew when he was asleep in bed.

His mummy was happy when Harry watched the baby. Harry knew this because his mummy would smile lots and ruffle his hair. (Everybody ruffled his hair. Peter said it was just because everybody liked his hair, but Sirius said it was because Potter hair had to be ruffled, it was in the jeans or something. Harry wore jeans sometimes. His hair wasn't in his pockets; he didn't understand what Sirius said. Sirius said things Harry didn't get quite a lot.) When Harry watched the baby, his mummy would smile and ruffle his hair and say "You love your baby sister, don't you, Harry?". Harry loved his mummy and daddy. He loved bath-time and his bath-time boat. He loved Remus and Peter. He loved Sirius when Sirius was a dog. He even loved Sirius when Sirius was just Sirius. But Harry didn't think he loved the baby. He didn't know if he was supposed to or not. Mummy thought he did already. He would love the baby, Harry thought, if it grew just like his sunflowers in the garden.

But one day, he gave up. He didn't care anymore. He didn't care about the growing. The baby was supposed to grow but it didn't. He had watched for so long but there was no growing. Not even a little bit. He didn't care about that stupid baby anymore. He crossed his arms – just like his daddy did – and gave up.

* * *

Cheers for reading. Oh, if only, if only, Jk Rowling had been so kind as to let Lily and James live, allowing Harry a chance to meet that possible sibling. Any ideas on what s/he would have been called? For some unknown reason Amelia has always come to my mind... but then there already is an Amelia (Amelia Bones)... oh, who knows. Anyway, leave me a review and I promise (sort of, not really) that you can have a toddler Harry to hold and love (- or something...) (or toddler Amelia Potter...? perhaps?).


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